Great efforts have been made to make improvements in the design of robotic grippers; however, end effectors, or hands, for robotic arms continue to be a limiting element for efficient use of the robotic grippers. Many different types of grippers have been used in the past, such as general purpose grippers, specialized grippers, wide opening grippers, heavy load grippers, jaw grippers, double grippers, etc. Frequently, robot grippers for outer space use employ finger elements containing "V" grooves to grip an object. These "V" grooves are used to both guide the object into place within the robot finger mechanism and to grasp and lock the object in that position once the object is securely in place. The "V" groove grippers have a frictional component at the interface between the object being grasped and the gripper finger.
In "V" groove grippers, since the parts contact each other with sloped faces, twisting of the object being grasped in the gripper will tend to pry the fingers apart, with large forces. This results in the backdriving of "V" groove grippers; i.e., large moments or forces tend to force the grippers open, requiring the drivetrain to resist this overload, or drop the object.
The apparatus disclosed in the instant invention overcomes the shortcomings of the "V" groove grippers by providing an end effector gripper that will, with very low frictional forces, effectively guide, align and seat an object in a desired position without experiencing back-driving during twisting or side loads.